life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “power”

08 Nov 2015

in this time

  
Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.
He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself

as long as it’s interesting.
He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient,

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.
He says everything is alive—

shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.
He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees

and grasses in your garden.
It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.
Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength

are life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.
He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

🌳

by, Roger Keyes is an American professor of East Asian studies. This poem is apparently his cross-media translation of the art of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) into poetry.

  
the stones are alive

the stones speak

tell stories of my life

sing me love songs

respond to my touch

grow warm when I’m near

glow with my compliments

smile with my encouraging words

blush as they rest against my skin

absorb my secrets

reveal my favorite colors

are perfectly comfortable with themselves –

hot or cold

polished or raw

the stones never argue

always tell the truth

give with no demand

accept themselves as beautiful

never question that they are 

amazing,

valuable,

beloved

just the way they are 

just the way we are
AL 

  
  

  

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, connection, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, mystery, nature, Passion, power | Leave a comment
31 Oct 2015

tricky 

  
So, I’ve been thinking about discipline- you know, the thing we think we need to find if we are going to do the things we know are good for us (like eating well, exercise, daily meditation etc.) I can clamp down with my will and pick up those aspirations daily- but at times it just feels like endless work, and sooner or later I run out of steam. 
So lately, I’ve been trying something different. Instead of berating myself and insisting that today (or tomorrow) I will dig deep and find the necessary discipline, I’ve been thinking about giving myself gifts. 
As in- today, I’m giving myself the gift of taking a walk in the autumn leaves, of taking my time in prayer and meditation, of making a wonderful stew for dinner. If I can keep my attitude in the range of doing something kind for myself (as opposed to doing something I think I “should” do) not only is it easier to create good self-care, it becomes about receiving that care with gratitude. 
And that’s just a more enjoyable way to receive the gift of this day. 

~Oriah 

 

   


   

Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, ‘Go beg for it.’ I didn’t know what to do! I’d knock on people’s doors and go, ‘Trick or treat.’ ‘No thank you.’

– Rita Rudner  

  

 

Posted in action, attitude, awareness, be, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, grace, Growth, Habits, Happiness, Happy Holiday!, healing, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, nature, power, Relationships | Leave a comment
10 Oct 2015

how do we ever ‘win’ in this world?

  
Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you, or die, your heart will be broken. But that should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love even more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant.

   #HenriNouwen THE INNER VOICE OF LOVE

http://wp.henrinouwen.org/rgroup_blog/

  HEARTBREAK is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. Heartbreak begins the moment we are asked to let go but cannot, in other words, it colors and inhabits and magnifies each and every day; heartbreak is not a visitation, but a path that human beings follow through even the most average life. Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athlete’s quick but abstract ability to let go. Heartbreak has its own way of inhabiting time and its own beautiful and trying patience in coming and going.

Heartbreak is inescapable; yet we use the word as if it only occurs when things have gone wrong: an unrequited love, a shattered dream, a child lost before their time. Heartbreak, we hope, is something we hope we can avoid; something to guard against, a chasm to be carefully looked for and then walked around; the hope is to find a way to place our feet where the elemental forces of life will keep us in the manner to which we want to be accustomed and which will also keep us from the losses that all other human beings have experienced without exception since the beginning of conscious time. But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way…
David Whyte

 

 Live today. Remove all blame from your vocabulary. Catch yourself when you find yourself using your past history as a reason for your failure to act today, and instead say, “I am free now to detach myself from what used to be”. – Dr Wayne Dyer

what is being responsible, truly?

what horrors do we shackle ourselves to in the name of responsibility?

how do we break the chains of control

of manipulation

of tradition

of condition

of religion?

and follow the the truth of our hearts 

of being in control 

of only our own lives

of our own destinies

of our souls true callings?

this is not about shirking our responsibility 

or being selfish

or leaving people in the lurch  

this is about coming from a place within

of being

of awareness

of beloved

of freedom

of disciplined action

seeing below the lying distractions so ready to keep us deluded

then allowing all things to flow from us 

to the ones we love

it’s the only way to truly live responsibly

in fact, it’s the only way to truly live

🔹

AL

  
photos found on facebook

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Change, Choice, commitment, compassion, connection, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, healing, intimacy, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, power, Reflection, Relationships, Respect | Leave a comment
06 Oct 2015

free fall

 

 Only when you are madly in love
    can your heart rest,
only asking the scariest questions

         are you at peace.
Only when you have lain in your grave

         are you truly alive,
only broken open

         are you truly whole.
Only on the invisible hand

         can you stand safely,
only on the unpredictable grace of God

       can you surely rely.

It is only in the raging sea

        you are safe,
only in the deep end

        you cannot be drowned.

______________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

  
 

   

  

   
 photos at www.pinterest.com 

 

Posted in action, Adventure, attitude, awareness, Change, Choice, courage, determination, find art at pinterest, fun, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, power | Leave a comment
14 Aug 2015

God’s honest truth

   
  

HONESTY
is reached through the doorway of grief and loss. Where we cannot go in our mind, our memory, or our body is where we cannot be straight with another, with the world, or with our self. The fear of loss, in one form or another, is the motivator behind all conscious and unconscious dishonesties: all of us are afraid of loss, in all its forms, all of us, at times, are haunted or overwhelmed by the possibility of a disappearance, and all of us therefore, are one short step away from dishonesty. Every human being dwells intimately close to a door of revelation they are afraid to pass through. Honesty lies in understanding our close and necessary relationship with not wanting to hear the truth.

The ability to speak the truth is as much the ability to describe what it is like to stand in trepidation at this door, as it is to actually go through it and become that beautifully honest spiritual warrior, equal to all circumstances, we would like to become. Honesty is not the revealing of some foundational truth that gives us power over life or another or even the self, but a robust incarnation into the unknown unfolding vulnerability of existence, where we acknowledge how powerless we feel, how little we actually know, how afraid we are of not knowing and how astonished we are by the generous measure of loss that is conferred upon even the most average life.
Honesty is grounded in humility and indeed in humiliation, and in admitting exactly where we are powerless. Honesty is not found in revealing the truth, but in understanding how deeply afraid of it we are. To become honest is in effect to become fully and robustly incarnated into powerlessness. Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story, we do not know where we are in the story; we do not know who is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end. Honesty is not a weapon to keep loss and heartbreak at bay, honesty is the outer diagnostic of our ability to come to ground in reality, the hardest attainable ground of all, the place where we actually dwell, the living, breathing frontier where there is no realistic choice between gain or loss. 
    – David Whyte

   

photo sources: top 2 photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT

other photos @ http://www.pinterest.com

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Change, Choice, courage, intimacy, Life, Love, People, power, Respect, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, Vulnerability | Leave a comment
16 Jul 2015

days of… 

  
Days of wine and focus

of hanging on

of staying strong

of keeping faith

of sitting still

of being silent

of thinking in beautiful 

of standing in my own shoes

of letting go 

of loving you through the distance

of letting you lead

of feeling the passion

of attempting not to burn up

of recognizing the spectacular

of allowing the mystery

of hearing the call

of accepting what is

of not crossing borders or boundaries

of opening and opening

of trusting the journey

of seeing the face of God

of surrender into something bigger than I can know

of making the daily commitment

of acknowledging the grace

of thanking for everything

of looking for the miracles

of talking to trees

of taking time to prepare

of expressing my love

of helping in time of need

of following my own path

of obedience rather than selfishness

of love and love and love

of all things love
AL

  

  Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Choice, courage, determination, Dreams, find art at pinterest, Growth, Habits, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, power, Purpose, strength, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
14 Jul 2015

a poem a day  

 

All poems are not equal
Just like grades of meat

and paper towels,

there are poems that are tough to chew on, stringy even

then there poems that melt into your mouth and soul, like velvety cream

some poems are flavored to perfection

and lots of poems with no salt

There are sturdy poems which mop up the spills of your heart

and thin poems, flimsy, ones that fall apart when you try to use them

There are poems that move and feel good in your hands

and poems that make your skin crawl when you read them. 

No, all poems are not equal –

sometimes I wonder 

why I like this thing called ‘poetry’ at all. 

At other times I know exactly 

why I have fallen so passionately

in love. 

❤️

AL

Listen to Stephen Burt at TEDx on Why We Need poetry http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_burt_why_people_need_poetry

   
    
    
Listen to John Denver sing Poems, Prayers and Promises http://youtu.be/M6PEsa36SRY ❤️

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

   
 

❤️

for you…

 

 

Posted in attitude, awareness, beauty, find art at pinterest, Letting Go, Life, Love, mystery, Poetry, power, soul and spirit, words, Writing, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
01 Jul 2015

nothing is worth more than this day!   

  
Your life isn’t behind you; your memories are behind you. Your life is ALWAYS ahead of you. Today is a new day. Seize it!       – Steve Maraboli

  
  

Listen to Frank Sinatra sing The Best Is Yet to Come http://youtu.be/TOyeyOEmFtE

🍒🍓🍎🍉🍊🍏🍑🍌🍇🍋🍐

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

Posted in attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, commitment, courage, determination, Faith, find art at pinterest, inspiration, intimacy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Passion, Patience, power, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, Trust, truth, www.pinterest.com | Leave a comment
21 Jun 2015

peace stronger than the storm 

  A great storm lashes this nation
while much of the people sleep,

a storm of racial hatred, a storm of fear.

In fear a white man seeks out blacks 

and kills them in their church.

This is not new.

The storm will not stop, 

the waves of death will not stop.

He is only one wave of the storm,

blown by great winds of fear.

It is not out of hope or happiness he kills,

he kills out of fear.

The one wave is not the problem; the storm is.

The storm envelopes us all.  

It defeats us, makes us anxious. 

We cry, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

A great storm battered the disciples’ boat.

Wind, invisible and relentless, 

howled down on them, pushing against them.

Waves would not stop, would not stop

bashing them, beating them, 

filling the boat, threatening to swallow them.
Fear howled in them like the wind,

fear beat in them like waves,

a relentless storm of fear.

Their hearts cried, “Save us! Manage this!”

But Jesus was asleep, not worrying,

not in control. Serene. At peace. 

“Jesus, join our anxiety! Won’t you despair with us?”

But Jesus was unafraid.

Maybe weary, maybe needing not to be needed,

but also unafraid. At peace. 
It was not fear, but his sisters’ and brothers’ cries

that awakened him. In his deep calm he rose,

not in fear, not in anger, but in peace

and gave his peace to the others,

and gave his peace to the winds and the seas.

Infinite peace flowed through him like wind,

passed out into the world like waves,

peace stronger than the storm.

It was not fear, but peace that calmed the storm. 

The Man of Peace cries out in our own souls.

Calms the storms of our fears. 

Grants us peace beyond understanding.

We let it fill us, that divine peace,

deep peace with all the world, 

deepest love for this world and all its children,

children with and without mercy, 

peace with the world and all is raging wounds,

peace even with the storm,

for it is peace with all of life.

This peace is also agony for our sisters and brothers.

It is care that we are perishing.

But it is care, not fear. It is deep peace.
And in that peace we shall awaken.  

Not fear but our sister’s and brothers’ cries awaken us.

We rise, as Christ rises, always in hope.

In deep peace, not in fear or anger,

we will rise and stand in the storm.

The winds will whip us.

The waves will batter us. But we will stand,

because Christ stands in us. 

We will cry out to the storm, 

and cry out to our sisters and bothers

with a peace stronger than the storm,

“Peace! Be still!”
The wind will still lash us, the waves batter.

Fear will react; anger will rise like new waves.

The wounds will retract and hide, afraid to be touched,

the wind afraid to be named.

But in the storm we shall stand in that peace that is love,

cry out with that peace that is anguish,

hold fast with that peace that is courage,

endure with that peace stronger than the storm.

And there shall be peace. 
Peace. Be Still. 

Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?

__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

http://www.unfoldinglight.net

                                                    

No, my friends

    darkness is not everywhere   

for here and there

     I find faces illuminated

           from within. 

       Japanese lanterns

             floating 

         among dark trees

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

Light by Carole Ann Borges

 Listen to Cat Stevens sing Morning Has Broken http://youtu.be/e0TInLOJuUM

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

 

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16 Jun 2015

Note to Self:   

 
Inspiration from

 my son, Brandon (he’s made my mamma-heart very happy this morning)…LISTEN to Paul Baribeau sing Ten Things! http://youtu.be/9X_o_BAUJ-c 

 
 

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